Business Courier: UC continues to foster innovation

Since UC President Neville G. Pinto created a new Office of Innovation housed in the 1819 Innovation Hub, innovation has grown significantly at the university.

Invention disclosures rose 51%, patent filings rose 62% and issued patents rose 94% in 2018-2022 compared to the previous five years.  Also, UC is slated to receive more United States patents in 2023 than it has in any single year since at least 1974.

“The work UC has done investing in our office and increasing our budget is absolutely significant,” said Geoffrey Pinski, assistant vice president for tech transfer at UC. “Now we’re seeing a more focused hiring approach, not only recruiting the best and the brightest, but recruiting those that are focused on commercialization, that have an interest in the process.”

UC faculty have partnered with companies such as Procter & Gamble and GE Aerospace to help solve real-world problems.

“We often have expertise they don’t have,” Pinski said. “We have scientists that are looking at many problems from multiple different perspectives than their engineers, who are focused on their product line only. It’s truly a diversity of thought that provides that balance.”

In the coming years, Pinski sees UC heavily investing in digital innovation and national security research plus expanding its leukemia research. The university also is preparing to complete the final buildout of the Digital Futures building to expand its research capabilities.

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Featured photo at top of Erin Hertlein, PhD, left, and John Byrd, MD, working in the lab. Byrd, one of the world’s foremost hematology experts, is a key part of UC's leukemia research. Photo/UC Foundation